Children's ballet

On Saturday, I attended a matinee for children at the historic Opera House by the Slovak National Ballet, Snow White and the 7 Racers. The place was packed, including very young children, from about 3-10 years of age. And there seemed to be just as many young boys as young girls, as I had noticed at Swan Lake earlier this month.

Pictures are not allowed during the performance, but I took this as people were packing up to leave.

I don’t know if anyone has studied the sociology of attracting talented young boys, as well as girls, to study ballet. But this ballet seemed tailor-made to send a very positive message at a young age. The cast included only two females. The real stars were the male soloists playing the seven racer/dwarves, athlete-artists in the best sense. They jumped on trampolines, raced around the theater aisles on tiny bicycles, turned cartwheels – all interspersed with athletic dance moves, leaps, and turns. After absorbing this, nobody could grow up thinking dancers are sissies, as they too often do in the U.S.

I had a lot more fun at this ballet than the standard Nutcracker staged over the holidays. This company does have that ballet in its repertory and is performing it in China next week, but not in Bratislava.

For more photos of the program, here is the link to the Ballet company’s site for this ballet:
http://www.snd.sk/?ballet&predstavenie=snehulienka-a-sedem-pretekarov&termin=476